The Power List: RYAN MURPHY

Murphy’s Glee soldiers on -- complete with gay teen kisses -- but the high school melodrama is just one of many projects the multi-hyphenate currently juggles. Last year, he debuted the campy-but-addictive American Horror Story, which proved a ratings hit and was renewed for a second season. Also in the pipeline is an NBC pilot, The New Normal, which focuses on a same-sex couple and their child’s surrogate mother; a Sony Pictures musical comedy, One Hit Wonders, with Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, and Cameron Diaz attached; and a star-studded (Alec Baldwin, Julia Roberts) film adaptation of Larry Kramer’s AIDS-era drama, The Normal Heart. Murphy’s the foremost proponent of queer characters in mainstream culture.